TORONTO, JUNE 9, 2011 : Air Canada sales and service agents and other union members protested at Pearson International Airport . Kathleen Wynne was listening.

Ontario election polls may be starting to suggest some emerging consistent if still quite uncertain story. The great poll aggregator Eric Grenier offers the snappiest summary : “close race.”

The latest “CP24/CTV Ipsos Reid poll of 868 Ontarians has determined that the Liberals now enjoy the support of 34 % of decided voters (up three points from last week), compared to 36 % for Tim Hudak’s PC Party (up one point), 23% for Andrea Horwath’s New Democrats (down five points) and seven per cent for the Green Party/Other (up one point). About 17% of respondents remain undecided.”

And : “The Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives are deadlocked heading into next week’s crucial televised leaders’ debate, according to a new poll …Forum Research found Kathleen Wynne’s Grits and Tim Hudak’s Tories tied at 36%, ahead of Andrea Horwath’s New Democrats at 20% and Mike Schreiner’s Greens at 7%.”

Just before the CP24/CTV Ipsos Reid poll noted above was announced, M. Grenier was pondering : “The last two polls we have seen out of Ontario have shown a close race, with a two-point edge for the Liberals according to Abacus and now a tie according to Forum. It will be interesting to see if Ipsos Reid, which was showing a narrowing of the gap the last we heard from them, will also show the same sort of close race.” We now know that Ipsos Reid has done just that. So, again … so far we know that we still don’t seem able to say much about the current Ontario race, except that it’s close.  But at least everyone most recently heard from is almost seeming to agree on that.

Tanya Kim and Ben Mulroney – 2010 MuchMusic Video Awards, Red Carpet Arrivals. Did he ever dream that one day his father would be chairman of Quebecor?

Meanwhile, what if there’s another Liberal minority government, some ask?  Or what if the Hudak Conservatives  win a very small plurality of seats – like Frank MIller’s PC s back in 1985? And on this last prospect see :  “Wynne won’t rule out teaming up with NDP if Tories win minority” ; and “Liberals leave door open to Ontario coalition government.” (Makes sense to me – which of course won’t be taken as any reason for rejoicing by most of my in-laws and even several siblings, etc.)

Meanwhile again, with so many Ontario regional newspapers owned by Quebecor, some prospective Ontario voters must be amused to read that ”Quebecor promotes former PM Mulroney as chairman … [Brian] Mulroney, a staunch supporter of a federal Canada that includes the mostly French-speaking province of Quebec, could help the company distance itself from former Chief Executive Pierre Karl Péladeau.” My wife at least was also impressed last night, when we saw Ben Mulroney impressing Tom Cruise with his comfortable French (and “good accent” the Cruiser observed). Yet how many others in Canada’s most populous province see this as a reason to vote for anyone or anything on June 12 ???? Whatever, the Ontario election TV debate this coming Tuesday, June 3 (“mark the date” someone advised on CTV the other day) is widely seen as the next big thing. And maybe that’s right. The Berry family will be watching … closely.